Like this:

School’s out! (In 9 days–but who’s counting?) My list of summer hopes & plans grows with each passing minute. First on my list? Something frivolous & impractical that I can do with my kids like . . . build this children’s summer teepee by Courtney Cerruti from Creativebug! Creativebug offers online D.I.Y. tutorials for a fee, but this summer the site is featuring family-friendly “craft camp”–free video workshops of stuff to do with kids. Other workshops include making clothespin dolls with Amy Karol or Shrinky Dink earrings with Nicole Blum.

Like this:

The clouds are cumulus. The sky is robin’s egg blue. The kids are at home asking about what to do next. Must be summer.

I, for one, am dreaming of lake days at my cottage. Did I say my? I meant at your cottage. Feel free to invite me.

This patchwork tablecloth made out of colorful bandannas is a fun project from Aesthetic Nest. The AN version looks like perfection, wafting in the breeze. Mine less so. As AN points out in the instructions, not all bandannas are made to the same size. I found that the white ones are the runts–an inch smaller all around, making things a little more irregular.

But the imperfection is what I like about the project–it doesn’t require seamless seams to look breezy, whimsical, and summery.

I made a square of 4 bandannas to cover the little table on my back porch.

And a larger square (3 by 3) for my mom’s table at–you guessed it–her summer cottage. Not that I’m hinting, Ma, but my bags are packed.

P.S. I bought the bandannas at Play Time Crafts in Arlington Center–a place intimately known to any Arlingtonian who has shepherded a kid’s school project. But if you’re from close by and haven’t been, you should check it out. If the teetering aisles of crazy inventory don’t charm you, the sweet-and-sour staff will win your loyalty.)